


Maybe in this land I can believe

by BlackCanine



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Día de los Muertos | Day of the Dead, Forgiveness, Guilt, M/M, Redemption, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 15:30:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21273482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCanine/pseuds/BlackCanine
Summary: Instead of attending a Halloween party the puppy pack organized, Theo takes Liam on a road trip. He finds solace in an ancient tradition.





	Maybe in this land I can believe

**Author's Note:**

> This plot bunny kept running around in my head and I decided to go with it. I hope you like it. :D

“Any particular reason you’re driving us south of the border?” Liam asked Theo as the truck sped away over the asphalt.

“No reason,” Theo shrugged non-committedly, which let Liam know there was definitely a reason to Theo’s impromptu suggestion to go on a roadtrip, but he let it go. It was not like he thought Theo would drive him to another country simply to kill him and abandon his dead body in a foreign land. Firstly, because Liam knew Theo could come up with at least a dozen different simpler ways to get rid of his body and secondly because the days when Theo didn’t have Liam’s full trust were long gone.

It hadn’t been an easy road to redemption for Theo, or to forgiveness for Liam for that matter. The night of the war with the hunters had been a turning point, for sure (though if Liam’s honest, it wasn’t as sudden as he might want to make himself believe), but there had still been a lot of work to be done.

Scott had been the quickest to forgive the chimera, saving his first bitten beta at the hospital seemingly the price to pay for his absolution, though Liam knew Theo would have done it either way; and the rest of the pack slowly (very slowly in Stiles and Malia’s case) followed the Alpha’s lead. Liam had been a special case, very vocally disagreeing with Theo’s inclusion in the pack but jumping to save Theo from hunters’ bullets or the occasional rogue werewolf.

Many months of hot-and-cold switches later, even Stiles had had enough of it and told Liam in no uncertain terms that he would bash his head with his old bat if he didn’t pull his head out of his ass and sort his feelings regarding Theo. Mason had been no help and eagerly handed the bat back to its former owner.

So, under the threat of severe maiming, Liam finally took the reigns of his own emotions and confronted his feelings for the chimera. He marched up the steps to the apartment Derek let Theo stay at in exchange for being the building’s handyman and knocked on the door. It had been a night of yelling, screaming, laughing and crying, both bringing up things ranging from Theo’s initial deception to the many times Liam broke his nose, peppered with memories of complicity and “this isn’t even a car key” that had them rolling on the floor with laughter before the screaming started again. Liam doesn’t even know why it surprised him that the night had ended in sex.

But that had been two years earlier. The not-so-puppy-anymore pack was now in college and they al had returned to Beacon Hills for Halloween. Or that had been the plan until Theo announced he and Liam were going on a road trip. So now, as he watched his boyfriend of two years push the gas pedal as if he wanted to embed it into the truck’s floor, Liam wasn’t worried about being murdered in some solitary Mexican range. He was, however, worried about Theo’s clenched jaw and hyper focused stare as he drove. Liam knew that look. It was the look he got when the ghosts of his past that haunted his dreams escaped into his waking hours. He also knew it was best to let Theo tame his demons on his own, and maybe silently hold his hand as he did so.

They stopped to sleep at a motel and then continued driving. Liam was sure they had even crossed a state line or two when Theo finally stopped the truck. He had taken them to a small town, which, far from being calm and quiet in the middle of the night as Liam had expected, was bustling with people laughing and running up and down the streets, many of them kids with paint on their faces and skull-shaped buckets hanging off their arms. They were trick-or-treating, Liam realized.

“Halloween’s over,” Liam commented with a confused frown as they made their way through the busy street. In fact, Halloween had come and gone while they were driving, and even if he had lost track of time for a moment, Liam was pretty sure they were a few hours away from November second.

“Not Halloween,” Theo replied and smiled as he looked around to take in the scene around him. It was almost midnight but the entire town seemed to be out on the streets. There were candles all over in addition to the lampposts that lined the sidewalks and colorful tissue paper ornaments hung from lines that went from balcony to balcony. There was a scent in the air, like incense mixed with something herbal, sweet and earthy. Liam realized it was the bright orange flowers scattered everywhere. That’s when it hit him.

“Is this… is this Day of the Dead?” he asked, “I’ve seen movies about this.” That made Theo snort.

“Please tell me you didn’t know about Day of the Dead because of a Pixar movie,” he mocked.

“Shut up, I knew it existed,” Liam sulked, “I just hadn’t really given it much thought. Is that why you wanted to come here? You wanted to see it in person?”

Theo regarded him with an unreadable look before taking his hand.

“Come, Little Wolf,” he said and pulled him further down the street.

He took Liam to a deserted alley, told him to wait for him and left him there. Liam was seriously reconsidering his discarded fear of getting murdered when Theo came back carrying two brown paper bags filled to the brim with what looked like groceries.

“You left me here to go grocery shopping?” Liam asked incredulous.

“Shut up and give me a hand,” Theo said as he dumped the bags on Liam’s arms and proceeded to fetch an abandoned piece of wood that had been reclined against the alley wall.

“It’d be easier for me to help if you told me what we’re doing,” Liam mumbled but Theo simply started taking fruit from the bags Liam was holding and placing it on the wooden board. Only when he saw Theo hang colorful sheets of tissue paper from an abandoned washing line that crossed the alley did Liam realize what the chimera was doing.

“Are you setting up an altar? Like they do on Day of the Dead?” he asked.

“You know what they say: ‘when in Rome…’” Theo replied as he set some container candles on the board and lit them up.

Theo then took the only remaining paper bag on Liam’s arms and took his hand to lead him away from the altar, beckoning him to seat with him with their backs against the alley wall. They sat in silence for some minutes, Theo watching the altar and Liam watching Theo. The chimera closed his eyes and rested his head back against the wall before sighing deeply and finally breaking the silence.

“You know I’m an atheist,” he said.

“I do.”

“But I’ve seen hell anyways, I know it exists.” Theo closed his eyes again and let the seconds tick by. Liam knew better than to push him. Whatever was on his mind would only come out on its own.

“Do you know what Day of the Dead is? What people do on this day?” he said suddenly after a few minutes, turning to his left to stare at Liam with wide gray eyes.

“It’s like Mexican Halloween, right?” Liam asked. He didn’t know much about it. He knew Scott had some Mexican heritage, and that he and Melissa would visit a local cemetery on Day of the Dead but that was pretty much all he knew about the festivity. Theo seemed to find it hilarious.

“So much for the history buff,” he snorted, “but no, it’s not Mexican Halloween, though I suppose you could say the core of it is not that different.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how on Halloween people believed the spirits would come back for one night?”

“That’s why people wore masks, to confuse the spirits,” Liam said, “though now it’s mostly an excuse to dress slutty.”

“You dressed as a Spartan soldier last Halloween and you knew damn well the effect you would have so you can’t talk,” Theo laughed.

“Fair enough,” Liam conceded, laughing too, fondly reminiscing about the way Theo hadn’t been able to tear his eyes away from his naked chest, framed by a red cape that only made it stand out more. That had been another night that ended in sex.

“On Day of the Dead spirits are also believed to come back for a night, but here people don’t greet them with fear, but with joy,” Theo went on as if they hadn’t gone on a tangent. “They don’t wear masks to fool them but set up altars with the food their dead loved ones used to like instead. Food and other things: booze, cigarettes, maybe a book they enjoyed. They make paths with marigold petals to show their loved ones the way back home, so they get to spend one night of the year with the people they lost.”

“It’s kind of beautiful. I didn’t know,” Liam admitted. He’d heard about the festivity before, but hadn’t really understood it. Hadn’t know why people would celebrate death. Now he realized the date was more about getting the family together, both the living and the dead.

“I _am_ an atheist,” Theo repeated, his voice tight and hoarse, “but I have seen hell. I know where you can go after you die, if you were bad enough.”

“Theo…”

“I can’t help wondering,” Theo interrupted, “if all this could be real. And if it’s not, I want to believe it is, even if it’s just for one night.”

And so Liam understood. He took Theo’s hand and reached over to place a soft kiss on his cheek, then pulled the chimera closer to him. Theo buried his head in the crook of Liam’s neck and tried to drown a sob.

They stayed like that for a while, the sound of music and laughter from the streets nearby the only thing to be heard. At last, Theo clutched the paper bag in his hand and got back on his feet.

“Come on,” he said, pulling a handful of bright orange flowers from the bag, “help me finish the altar.”

And so they did. Liam helped Theo cut the stem of the marigolds and carefully set the flowers on the ground to make a path. Theo continued hanging tissue paper and setting all kinds of fruit and candy on the altar. When it was all set, Theo searched his jacket pockets and a confused Liam watched him place three more things on the wooden board: a heart-shaped locket, and on either side of it a keychain with a lizard charm and a plug adapter; then, he pulled out his wallet, fetched a crumpled photograph and placed it next to the locket. Liam saw the smiling girl with black hair and bright, intelligent eyes on the picture and realized it was Tara. Theo then pulled two more photos from his wallet, one was placed next to the keychain and the other next to the plug adapter. The chimera ignored the wolf’s gasp and took out the final objects left in the paper bag: three white sugar skulls.

“They let you customize them with the names you want,” Theo explained. Liam saw what he meant when he read the words written on the forehead of each skull: TARA, TRACY, JOSH. Theo set the sugar skulls in front of the photographs and, with the altar finally complete, Liam took his hand. They observed the result of their efforts for a while until Theo let out a loud sob.

“I’m sorry,” he said to the pictures, “I’m sorry.”

Liam squeezed Theo’s hand and nudged him away from the altar. “Come on,” he said, leading him back to where they were sitting with their backs against the alley wall. Theo followed the wolf and they both just sat there, staring at the flickering flames from the candles dance in the night, the tissue paper softly rustling above them.

“Do you think they’ll come?” Theo asked feebly, embarrassed of his childish question.

Liam wasn’t sure what to believe, he didn’t have a belief regarding where people go after they die, but Theo’s stint in hell was proof enough they went _somewhere_. He understood what Theo meant now, when he said this date made him want to believe. Who knew, maybe Tara, Tracy and Josh would find the marigold path Theo and Liam had made and find they hadn’t been forgotten. For Theo’s sake, Liam wished with all his might they did.

“I think they will,” Liam reassured him, squeezing his hand again.

“Do you think they know I regret it? Every single day?” Theo asked, his voice merely a choked whisper.

“They do,” Liam said softly, and Theo buried his head in Liam’s neck once again.

They fell asleep. When they woke up the sun had just risen and the candles had been blown out. The wind had also blown most of the marigolds away, leaving only a few loose orange petals behind. Theo fetched the locket, the charm, the plug adapter and the photographs before accepting Liam’s hand and letting the younger wolf guide him back to where they parked the truck.

The drive back was mostly silent, with Liam squeezing Theo’s knee every now and then, grounding him. Liam took the wheel halfway there and let Theo doze off on the backseat. Unlike most times Theo slept, no nightmare rose Theo from his sleep.

When they got back home, Mason greeted them effusively and talked their ears off telling them about the Halloween party they had missed. Nolan apparently made a fool of himself in front of Alec again and was too mortified to get out of bed now, even threatening with quitting his lacrosse team at college for good. Liam promised Mason he would knock some sense into him.

They fell asleep again the second their heads hit the mattress once they got to Theo’s apartment. Liam slept through the night but a sweet, earthy scent woke Theo up. He didn’t remember dreaming anything, a definite win in his book. A chilly draft made him shiver and the chimera saw they had forgotten to close the bedroom window. He stood up to shut it close and climbed back to bed. If he hadn’t been so sleepy, he might’ve noticed the three bright orange petals that had been blown into the room and landed on the nightstand, but he never did. When he got out of bed the next morning, he didn’t even remember waking up in the middle of the night.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think. And happy Day of the Dead, if you celebrate it. :D


End file.
